Karen Westphal Karen Westphal works as a school psychologist for Mechanicsburg Area School District and has been a member of St. John s for approximately 12 years. During this time she has served on the Hospitality Committee and been the coffee hour coordinator as well as being Hurricane Task Force coordinator and a member of the Refugee Relocation Committee. She chaired the Adult Education commission and was the host and coordinator of Via Media Bible study program. Karen also serves on the Stewardship Committee, Outreach Commission and is and Medical Pastoral Visitor. As a member of St. John s Karen is excited to be part of expanding circles of relationship inside and outside the church. She is eager to be part of expanding our circles of relationship, developing Christian education and extending our hand to those both at St. John s and in the communities we participate in and support. In the community she was on the Dickinson College Child Care Center Advisory Council and United Way of the Greater Carlisle Area allocations panel and program/funding evaluation team. She volunteered for Legal Services of Cumberland County and is a volunteer consultant for the Disabilities Law Clinic at DSL. Dean Glick My family and I have attended St. John s since 1998, when we moved to Carlisle after I retired from the Navy. I am now a community service volunteer, having served on the board, and briefly, as Interim Executive Director of Cumberland Valley Habitat for Humanity. I also served as Interim Executive Director of the Sadler Health Center, and am currently the president of the board for the Employment Skills Center. I have served on St. John s vestry and as Senior Warden. I am a chalice bearer for Saturday evening services and a member of the Men s Prayer Breakfast group.
Terry Walker My wife, Irene, and I have regularly attended and supported St. John s Church since we moved to Pennsylvania in September 2007. I sing in the Parish Choir and regularly attend the Men s Prayer Breakfasts. During the past year I served as Co-Chair of the Stewardship Campaign for support of St. John s in 2010. I expect to continue in that role in the coming year. We formerly lived in Potomac, Maryland and moved here to be close to our daughter, Beth Watkins. In our former church I sang in the church choir, and was Chairman of the Finance Committee for six years and prior to that was Stewardship Chairman for seven years. Prior to leaving Maryland I was President of the Fallswick Homeowners Association and, for four years, was a volunteer assistant to the President of the Strathmore Center for the Performing Arts in Montgomery County. Irene and I celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of our wedding in April 2008. We are blessed with three happily married children and seven grandchildren. Timothy Lively I began attending St. John's in 1996 after meeting Katharine McDowell. In December of 1997, Katharine and I were married at St. John's. Katharine and I have had many different experiences within the Episcopal faith community. I assisted with postions as State Park Chaplain at Gifford Pinchot State Park, Youth Minister at All Saints' Hershey, and as a youth group leader at St. John's. In 2004, I was called to our welcoming ministry and assigned as a Verger; a position I continue to serve in on a monthly basis during the 10:15 service. I have played various roles during St. John's Twelfth Night Celebration including Beefeater, Knight, and bagpiper. I was co-teacher for the past two years for the preschool vacation bible school. Katharine and I live in Carlisle with our children, Graham and Aroostine who have both been baptized at St. John's. We are currently expecting our third child. I have been a police officer for over
eleven years and have served North Middleton Township as a police detective for over seven years. I feel blessed to have a career where my actions can help both individuals and the community every day. I hope that my personal and professional experiences will add an important perspective to the Vestry. Alvin Blitz My wife, Diane, and I joined St. John s in 1989 after I graduated from Dickinson School of Law. We were actively involved in the church ministry as our sons, Thomas and Paul, grew up. I have served as the Chairman of the Planned Giving Committee since 1990 and helped in the creation of the Bishop White Legacy Society. In 1992 I served on the Endowment committee and was the chair for several years. In 1995, I served on the Vestry and Finance Committee and have been appointed Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee since 1996. I also served on the Gloria Ewing Fund Committee during its existence and served as Chairman of the Education Commission for 2 years in the late 90s. I have been active with the Stewardship Committee since the early 90s and Chaired the Steering Committee for the last Capital Campaign in 2005. Recently, I have been involved in the creation of the Senior Boy s Investment Club. I also served in several roles for the Diocese of Central Pa. including Chairman of the Planned Giving Committee in the late 90s. After leaving the private practice of law in 2000, I have been employed as the Chief Director of Gift Planning for the Masonic Villages in Elizabethtown, Pa. where I am responsible for the oversight of all fundraising activities, including planned giving and major gift solicitation. St. John s has been a guiding light in my Christian journey through life for me. These many years have meant much to me and my family. Linda Hamilton Linda Hill Hamilton was born in Carlisle, and after graduating from Penn State and serving as a Naval Officer for three years, embarked on a successful career as an operations research analyst, business development manager, and strategic planner in the defense and aviation industries. When she retired eight years ago, she and her husband Griff Hamilton moved to
Carlisle, where she has remained busy in charitable activities. She currently sits on the Board of Directors and is active in several planning committees at Keystone Partners, a charity in the family of Keystone Children s' and Human Services. Keystone operates group homes for mentally and physically challenged children and adults, operates Susquehanna Service Dogs, manages the Head Start program in Central Pennsylvania, and is initiating Head Start-like programs in Russia and Moldova. She is also active in several YWCA women's programs, and helps her husband plan the highly successful series of wine tastings for St. Johns. Jenny Silkett Once upon a time, someone claimed that a teen s first love does not last. I don t agree. At age 15, I fell in love with the Episcopal Church and was confirmed on the Feast of St. Peter, by Shirley A. Nichols, Retired Bishop of Salina, Kansas and Tokyo, Japan. My instruction for confirmation had a domino effect: my parents and sibling followed, so we all were confirmed together. In the prayer book given to me, the aged bishop wrote God Thee bless always. He did, and still does. My relationship with St. John s began inauspiciously, in 1985, when I was new to Carlisle. Following the early service, a parishioner introduced herself and invited me to go to breakfast with her. A few years later, in 1991, my husband and I were married in St. John s. Between us, Wayne and I have five (5) children: three (3) adult sons, Chris, Robby and Byron, and two (2) teenage daughters, Ariel and Soleil. In past years, I sang with the choir and to this day, remain thankful that they did not ask me to depart in peace. I enjoy being involved, whether peeling peaches for the annual Peaches and Ice Cream Social on a Saturday morning, baking cookies for the Cookie Walk, or helping to host Carlisle s homeless on Thanksgiving Night. Currently, I serve on the Food for Friends Ministry, and as a lay Eucharistic Visitor. Through these ministries I gained deeper appreciation of St. John s comforting impact on the lives of others. By profession, I am a librarian, and have served as director over multiple (4) libraries. I created annual budgets, hired, trained and evaluated personnel, and was responsible for programming and daily operations, to include facility maintenance. To renovate one branch library, I worked with vendor resources to develop a practical design which was also cost-effective. I earned a masters degree in Library and Information Science from Shippensburg University. Success in my field requires good listening skills, the ability to connect with people, problem-solving skills, flexibility, adaptability and creativity. I am not afraid to think outside the box.
St. John s successes result from its commitment to achieve balance between traditional and modern, and being inclusive across the age spectrum. Wonderful things happen when people reach out to each other. Kiddy activity books often have a connect the dots page. When all dots have been connected, the intent of the creator is visible. The life of this parish is much like that.we each are a dot in the grand scheme of things. When we are connected, the bigger picture emerges, and there is nothing we cannot achieve together. Felicity Hajjar I have been a member of St. John s and the parish choir since moving to Carlisle from Falls Church, Virginia in 1996. As part of St. John s family, I am currently serving as a lay pastoral visitor and a flower deliverer, and have participated in the stewardship campaign the last several years. The daughter of an Episcopal priest, I am a life-long Episcopalian and have previously served on vestries in Wyoming and Abu Dhabi. I am a librarian and have worked at Carlisle s Bosler Memorial Library, and for the past 10 years, as Coordinator of Technical Services for the Cumberland County Library System. My husband, Sami, and I have 3 children and 1 grandson, all of whom live in the mountain states. Beth Bullard I have been a parishioner at St. John s since 1968 and was confirmed by Bishop Stevenson in the late 1970s along with my two sons. Since coming to St. John s I have played active roles in the musical life of the church and in adult education. I have degrees in western music and in musics of the world, both of which subjects I ve taught at Dickinson College, Gettysburg College, and Temple University. In the mid 1990s, I did field research in Madras, South India. While there, I attended an Anglican cathedral at which the services were word-for-word and tune-for-tune like those at St. John s, Carlisle! From 2000 to my retirement in 2008, I was Director of World Music Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. My focus in retirement is local, especially St. John s, with interests in the church in the world and the world in the
church. Amy Steffe I have attended St. John s, Carlisle since 1999 when my sons and I moved back to Pennsylvania from Florida. I ve been an Episcopalian all my life. Down in Florida, we were members of All Souls Episcopal Church in North Ft. Myers where I was a member of the vestry. Most of my growing up years were spent at St. John the Baptist in York. My husband, John, and I were married there in 1999. I have two grown sons, Shane and Scott. You may remember Scott; it was a struggle every Sunday to get him to stop playing the piano and/or the organ and go home. here. Every morning when I see the mountains and the passing seasons I thank God to be back in Central Pennsylvania. I m doubly grateful to have found the wonderful worship community at St. John s and the friends I have made Professionally, I am a 7 th grade Science teacher at Wilson Middle School in Carlisle. At church I am one of the lay readers. I also participate in Twelfth Night, the Prayer Shawl ministry when I can, and the SAFe group. In my free time, I am a Master Gardener with the Penn State Extension Service and a hopeless animal lover.